


Changing Little by Little

by babieken



Category: VIXX
Genre: Crack, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Jaehwan has no filter, M/M, dumb boys being soft, magical au, or shame, shape shifter, side kenvi and hyukbin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21628630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babieken/pseuds/babieken
Summary: “Hm… I wonder what your specialty is going to be,” Taekwoon smirked.“I wonder if he could turn into a dildo.”“Both of you please shut up! You’re freaking me out! What if I turn into a glass of water and someone drinks me? Or what if I turn into a mug and someone breaks me? Or pour hot coffee in me! Oh my god, what am I gonna do..”
Relationships: Cha Hakyeon | N/Jung Taekwoon | Leo, Han Sanghyuk | Hyuk/Lee Hongbin, Kim Wonshik | Ravi/Lee Jaehwan | Ken
Comments: 22
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This should technically be in the Tumblr prompt series but since it turned long I figured I make it a separate fic.  
> For nonother than miss Rachel my muse and beta for this work. thank you and you're the best I hope you enjoyed this <3
> 
> Title from the iconic Japanese B-side track Shadow by VIXX

Hakyeon was unique. He had the voice of an angel and a pure heart made out of gold. Bones that could not have been made out of bone because how can he move like that? A bright smile that could melt the coldest of hearts - but that wasn’t all of it.

He was born unique. He’d inherited a gene passed through his ancestors. They all thought it was just a legend. A children’s tale. For three generations, no one in the family had inherited it. Hakyeon remembered his grandma telling him stories that her grandma used to tell her. She told him that only the most special would carry it. It chooses you and it would change your life. ‘But one must be careful, my child, For those who got carried away never came back.’

The stories always fascinated him. He used to daydream about them, about himself having the gene, but as he grew up he also grew out of them and stopped believing in them. After all, magic wasn’t real.

College life was fun. Not as fun as he thought it would be but it was an experience. Being away from your family and being responsible for your own survival, and more times than not his dumbass friends, was an experience. But things started to get a little… complicated...

..

“Jaehwan, no.” 

“Jaehwan, yes.”

“That’s just not how it works!” Hakyeon had been arguing with the younger for the past 15 minutes.

“Why not? It’s math! 20 minutes in 300 degrees equals 10 minutes in 500 degrees,” the younger argued.

“Sweetie, cooking isn’t math! The peperos will burn before they’re even fully baked in that time.” Hakyeoon took a deep breath and tried to keep his cool. He was thinking about signing up for meditation class or something. Between Jaehwan’s constant loud presence and Taekwoon’s weird, mysterious quiet he was in desperate need of relaxation.

“You’re not making any sense! How can it burn before being baked?” Jaehwan said, crossing his arms across his chest. Hakyeon rubbed his temples.

“With all due respect Hwanie, you’ve never even boiled water in your life! So kindly shut the fuck up when I’m cooking.” Hakyeon was not the cursing type but Jaehwan really knew how to get on his nerves.

The younger huffed his breath out of his cartoonish pointy nose and frowned. “I just wanted to help- OW! Hey, what the hell?”

_ Taekwoon, my savior,  _ Hakyeon thought as Taekwoon quietly walked into the kitchen and dragged Jaehwan out using the back of his shirt’s collar. It sorta looked like when felines grab their kids with their teeth behind the neck.

“I put him in front of the kids’ channel.” The soft voice came from behind Hakyeon and made him jump. Taekwoon had a soft airy voice but he could still startle you with the way he moved around quietly without being heard.

“Taek! Jesus, don’t do that! ‘Specially when I’m at the oven!” 

“Sorry,” the younger whispered. He was only a few months younger. But still younger.

“What did you say?” Hakyeon asked, taking off his safety gloves.

“Sorry?”

“No, before that.”

“Jaehwan. Kids’ channel.”

“Oh right. Thank you, you’re a lifesaver. Jaehwan is a child,” Hakyeon breathed. His patience was being tested everyday in their shared apartment but he kept telling himself that it was a good thing. He was the youngest in his family and while he wasn’t spoiled per se he was still the baby and did not have too much responsibility. So, this was practice for the future, for when he got married and had 6 kids with 3 dogs and-

“Earth to Hakyeon,” Taekwoon called. Hakyeon shook himself out of the daydream.

“Sorry Woonie, what did you say?”

“I said, you’re still making his favourite pepero topping.” There was no question there.

“Well, yeah? I’m also making yours? And mine?” 

“But he’s annoying and irritating and infuriating.”

“He’s still my friend and I love him, you too.” Hakyeon smiled and patted Taekwoon on the shoulder. The younger rolled his eyes and walked out of the kitchen as quietly as he had walked in.

Hakyeon shook his head and smiled to himself. Taekwoon could act tough all he wanted but Hakyeon knew he deeply cared about the other two. He almost beat someone up for picking on Jaehwan in their first year.

..

It was a Sunday evening; Hakyeon and his roommates were studying for their midterms. Jaehwan wasn’t doing much studying, really. “Jaehwan, stop whining and start studying. Crying about the amount of shit you don't understand isn’t going to help you understand it!” he sighed.

“But studying when I understand nothing isn’t going to help either, genius!”

“Yes it _ will, _ just try and focus. And ask Taekwoon when you don’t understand something,”

“I did not sign up for this,” Taekwoon grunted.

“Well, too bad because I’m reaching my limit and I swear to god if I hear another whine from either of you I will personally str-” and poof. He was gone. Well, not gone. Transformed. Right in front of his two roommates.

“What the…” Jaehwan jumped from his seat on the ground, taking a few steps back. Taekwoon was sitting frozen, staring at the notebook on the table that wasn’t there two seconds ago.

About 15 seconds passed. The two were staring at the plain notebook sitting on the table. Then poof - Hakyeon was back. But instead of on his spot on the ground, he was sitting on the table. He looked as terrified as the both of them, if not more. He had run into his room and locked the door and didn’t answer to anyone until the next day when he came out with a backpack on, dressed to leave.

“Are you going to tell us what the fuck is going on? Wait, where are you going?” Jaehwan called, following Hakyeon.

“To get some answers.”

  
  


He came back the next day, looking paler than the two had ever seen him. They gave him some space, although it was more like Taekwoon made Jaehwan give him some space. “ _ He’ll tell us. Just wait.” _

And he did tell them later that night. He called them into the kitchen. Taekwoon made tea and they sat at the table for a few minutes, silently just watching the steam leaving their mugs, until Hakyeon broke the silence.

“It’s a curse, basically.” The other two stayed silent. “It’s in our blood… in the family but no one had had it for hundreds of years. I thought it was just a fairy tale.”

“What exactly is  _ it _ ?” Jaehwan couldn’t hold back anymore. Taekwoon glared.

“It’s… basically, I’m a shapeshifter. But not in a werewolf way.”

“Yeah…. You literally turned into a notebook! Is that the only thing you can shift into?”

“No, it can be anything really… wait,” he said and left the kitchen for a minute and came back with a bunch of old and dusty books.

“These might tell us more, because believe it or not I’m not an expert in this. My grandma used to tell me stories but that’s where my knowledge ends.”

“We can help you read the books,” Taekwoon said reassuringly. Hakyeon reached out and held his friend’s hand. 

“Thank you.”

“I’m gonna get some pen and paper so we can take notes,” said Jaehwan, jumping out of his seat. He was probably just excited to read spooky books.

“Thanks, Jaehwanie.”

They stayed up all night and went through all the books, listing every important detail they could get out of them.

“Why did they have to write these so vaguely?”

“Tell me about it...”

“So the ones I went through were more about the process and the history of it. Not much useful info other than it apparently chooses you. It doesn’t say based on what though. And that for about a year you can’t control it,” Hakyeon said, rubbing his eyes.

“Why?” Jaehwan asked.

“I don’t know. It literally says ‘the magic will get to know you before you get to know it,’ meaning it’s probably going to poke around for a while before it let’s me behind the wheel or something.”

“That’s kinda creepy.” Jaehwan made a face, but then cleared his throat and continued, “I got some interesting stuff. There are lists of the people in your family who had  _ ‘it’ _ with their history. Before and after the gene was ‘ _ triggered _ ’. And the list of the stuff everyone could shift into. Apparently, everyone was different. Some were good with plants, some animals and some objects. But there was one person that could turn into anything. He’s the only one as far as these records go.”

“Hm… I wonder what your specialty is going to be,” Taekwoon smirked.

“I wonder if he could turn into a dildo.” 

“Both of you please shut up! You’re freaking me out! What if I turn into a glass of water and someone drinks me? Or what if I turn into a mug and someone breaks me? Or pour hot coffee in me! Oh my god, what am I gonna do..”

“Relax Yeon, there was no record of anyone turned into food or liquid of any kind. Everything was either solid or alive,” Jaehwan said, showing Hakyeon his notes.

“And from what I got, anything that isn’t fatal to the human you, won't be fatal to the ‘whatever you have shifted into.’ For example, if you’re a cup and you fall from the table, you won’t break and hence you won’t die. But if someone throws the cup down from a three-story building or... I don't know, shoots you with a gun, then you will die.”

“That’s not really comforting.”

..

“Relax, you’re gonna be fine,” Taekwoon tried to assure him for the thousandth time.

“Stop telling me to relax! I have zero control over this and I could turn into any freaking object or animal at any moment!” Hakyeon hissed.

They were walking in the hallways of the university with hundreds of people around. If he shifted there they would be in lots of trouble.

“By the way, can you like... see or hear stuff when you shift?”

“Yes and no.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, objects don’t exactly have eyes and ears but I am aware of the surroundings. I can feel everything in a non-three-dimensional way.”

“Okay…” Taekwoon said, even though he probably didn’t really understand it. Hakyeon himself still had trouble understanding everything too.

“I also know exactly what I’ve turned into. I just know.”

“Have you shifted after that first time?” Taekwoon asked.

“...Yeah, I turned into a toothbrush while I was at my family’s home.” He winced, remembering the incident. He was washing his face in the bathroom one second and laying still on the blue tiles of the bathroom the next. He thought he might try breathing exercises to calm himself but... Toothbrushes don’t breathe.

“Huh! What color?” He chuckled.

“Why does that matter?” he said, rubbing his temples.

“Come on, I’m curious. It’s like those stupid games kids play when they ask each other what kind of car would you be if you were a car and shit.” 

“...fine, it was yellow. Now shut up.”

“Interesting…”

..

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Shut up, Jaehwan! I’m stressed enough myself. I don’t need your shit right now,” Hakyeon groaned. They were sitting at the corner of the campus cafe. It wasn’t crowded yet but there were still a few students there, all of them sitting with their heads in their laptops and cups of coffee beside them. Hopefully, they will be too busy to notice if Hakyeon shifted suddenly.

“Why did we have to come here of all places?” Jaehwan whined.

“Because I can’t hide in my room for the rest of my life Jae!”

“I’m not saying that but maybe we should pick….” 

Poof. Hakyeon was gone.

“...someplace less crowded.” His voice died in his throat as he finished his sentence. Hakyeon was gone. And he couldn’t see any new object. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Everyone was busy doing their own shit thankfully.

“Do you need something, Jaehwan?” the voice that undoubtedly belonged to Wonshik said from beside him. Where did he come from? Did he notice?

“Uh... no?” Jaehwan looked up at the tall barista. Wait... he wasn’t even a waiter why was he here?

“I... uh... Just saw you looking around and one of the waiters didn’t come today and the other was busy so I thought I’d check on you,” he rambled. He was cute. Maybe Jaehwan liked him. But he was too stressed to flirt right now.

“No… just looking around.” Jaehwan forced a smile and tried to look natural.

“Oh, alright. Wait, where’s Hakyeon?” the younger asked. He was also a student at their university; he studied chemistry. He looked cute with a white coat and safety glasses mixing questionable substances. Maybe Jaehwan had sneaked into the lab to watch him once. Okay, twice.

“He... uh went to the... Bathroom. Yes. Nature’s call,” he laughed nervously.

“Oh, what is this?” Wosnhik bent and picked something up from Hakyeon’s chair. Oh god.

There was a succulent in a tiny yellow pot. Oh, a living thing. That was a first.

“Oh, it’s Hakyeon…’s. He uh… got it for our apartment. Absorbs the negative energies and shit.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. They’re also cute.” Wonshik looked at the small plant with heart eyes before he put it on the table. He was so cute… but Jaehwan had to get rid of him before Hakyeon turned back in Wonshik’s hand.

“I’m sorry, I have to get back to my paper,” Jaehwan said apologetically.

“Yes, of course. Sorry. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Sure thing.” Wonshik left.

Jaehwan took the succulent to the bathroom and put it on the ground.

“Time to come back Cha Cha. Come on.” He clapped his hands. 

Five minutes passed and nothing.

“Fuck this shit,” Jaehwan murmured under his breath and picked the pot up. He went back to their table, gathered all their stuff, and went to the cashier.

“Hey Sanghyuk,” he said hurriedly as he gave the boy his card. 

“Hey. Where did Hakyeon hyung go?” he said, handing the card back. Why was everyone suddenly so curious about Hakyeon?

“He had to leave in a rush, I don’t know.” He didn’t have the time for this. “Have a nice evening and thank Wonshik for the coffees for me!” He winked at the boy and practically ran out of the cafe and basically marathoned to their apartment.

  
  


..

Taekwoon jumped at the loud smack of the front door being kicked open.

“What is wrong with you?” Taekwoon glared at the younger.

“Nothing. Just take him, I’m going to the library to finish my fucking paper,” he said, giving Taekwoon the small pot with the succulent, dropping Hakyeon’s stuff on the sofa, and was out of the door beforeTaekwoon got to ask anything.

“What…” Taekwoon stood there frozen for a few seconds.

“He said ‘take  _ him _ ’…” he thought out loud. “OH! It’s you!” He brought the pot near his face.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.” He smiled at the plant.  _ He must be so scared _ , he thought.

“I’ve heard plants like it when you talk to them.” He sat back down on the sofa, holding the pot in his hands tightly. “So how about I talk to you? You used to talk to me when I had panic attacks.” He turned the TV on for some background noise and started talking about everything and anything: Complaining about his classes, about the guy who bumped into him in the hallways and almost got into a fight with, about his next project, until he fell asleep.

..

Taekwoon’s neck hurt. A lot. And his legs and his side. Why did he feel like he was buried underneath something? He felt heavy.

He opened his eyes with difficulty to find hair in front of him. Soft brown hair. Something was breathing, he could feel it moving.

Wait... the succulent. Hakyeon.

So he had shifted back at some point during the night. Taekwoon grunted in pain and Hakyeon justled awake.

“Oh god… I’m back,” he said, looking at his arms and touching his face before realizing he was on Taekwoon’s lap. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” He jumped down.

“It’s okay, I’m glad you’re back.” Taekwoon’s cheeks heated up. Hakyeon had slept on his lap the whole night.

“I’m gonna make coffee for you and tea for me,” Hakyeon said before disappearing into the kitchen. Was he embarrassed too?

..

“So... a plant huh? How did that feel?” Taekwoon asked.

“I was fucking terrified because we were in public! I didn’t really get to bask in the moment.” He rolled his eyes. “But later at home… when you talked to me, it was nice,” Hakyeon said shyly, looking down at his hands.

Taekwoon coughed, “Uh... No problem.” 

“Really Taekwoon, thank you. I know you’re not a big fan of talking. So it meant a lot.” Taekwoon was getting redder by the second. In all the time that Hakyeon knew him, one of the most interesting things about him was how shy he was about receiving compliments and praises. Hakyeon suspected he liked them.

“I was surprised though. According to the records, usually, it takes months for the person to shift into living beings. It starts with basic stuff and gets to more complex objects and then plants and animals.”

“Yeah… It better mean that I will be able to control it sooner.”

“I have an idea!”

..

“Jaehwan, why are you carrying a blanket with you?” Taekwoon said, blinking at the younger standing at the door looking annoyed as hell, holding a yellowish-cream fluffy blanket.

“Why do you think?” he replied, stepping closer and throwing the blanket in Taekwoon’s face.

Yellow. It must be Hakyeon. “When did this happen?”

“On the stairs. He was talking about being cold one second and then  _ bam! _ he’s a blanket. Which is… sort of convenient if you think about it.”

“You’re right… he turned into a notebook when we were studying. A toothbrush when he was in the bathroom. A blanket when it was cold.”

“A toothbrush?” Jaehwan cackled.

“But the succulent…” Taekwoon tried to make the connection between the plant and the cafe.

“I don’t know, I’m going to study,” he said and left to his room and closed the door. He could be really bratty if he wanted to.

“Hakyeon, remember what we talked about the other day? Do you wanna try?” Taekwoon asked, forgetting that the blanket can’t answer.

He got up and folded the blanket and put it on the couch beside him. He turned so he was facing the blanket, Hakyeon. “I hope folding doesn’t hurt,” he laughed nervously.

“Okay, let’s try if you can change colors. How about green?”

Taekwoon sat patiently, staring at the blanket.

“It’s alright, you will do it eventually. Wait, how about if I looked away? I get nervous if someone watches me while I’m trying to do something,” he confessed and turned around in his seat so his back was to the blanket. He waited to minutes until he slowly turned around. And there it was, a pastel green blanket. It was possibly the prettiest shade of green Taekwoon had ever seen in his life.

“You did it! I knew you could do it, I’m so proud of you.” Taekwoon was hugging the folded green blanket to his chest tightly without realizing. He coughed and put it, ‘him’, down quickly when he realized. “Sorry, I just got a bit excited.” Taekwoon was staring at his hands on his thighs when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

“Taekwoonie.” Hakyeon had shifted back to human form right at that moment. Perfect timing. 

“That was so sweet.” Hakyeon looked and sounded like he was tearing up. He pulled Taekwoon into a tight hug.

“I think I like you better when you can’t talk,” Taekwoon groaned, almost being suffocated in Hakyeon’s arms.

..

“I think I should take a year off,” Hakyeon blurted out.

“What? Absolutely not.” Taekwoon raised his voice. Hakyeon was shocked; Taekwoon had never raised his voice.

“Listen, the book said it takes a year! I can’t do this for a year. I can’t go to classes scared of shifting into a fucking garbage can!” Hakyeon was under a lot of pressure. He had shifted two times after the blanket thing: Once at their apartment and another time on the way to the grocery store with Taekwoon. They had an agreement that he wouldn’t go anywhere alone.

“You won’t turn into a garbage can.” Taekwoon rolled his eyes.

“You don’t know that!” 

“Hakyeon, you can’t leave me here with that maniac. Secondly, you did control it the other day, remember?” Taekwoon argued. 

“I don’t even know how I did it. Maybe it happened on its own.”

“I believe you did it! Look, I think we should read the other book. It might have some important info.” There was one book that none of them could read because it was in Latin. It was the thickest and probably the oldest book they had.

“And how do you suggest we do that? Use google translate?”

“No. I might know someone.”

“That sounds like a line from a bad spy movie. And  _ you _ know someone? You, Jung-I-hate-all-human-beings-Taekwoon, know someone?” Hakyeon arched his brow at him, looking at him judgingly.

“I never said I hated all human beings. I like you.” It was too late when he realized what he said. His face was burning up. “A...And yes I know a guy. He’s a double major in IT and linguistics. He sells illegal pdfs and copies of the textbooks.” He’s broke okay? Law textbooks are not cheap.

“He  _ what _ ?!” Hakyeon shouted.

“Please don’t be mad I only bought like two books because I really couldn’t afford them-” Taekwoon begged.

“Why didn’t you tell me about him earlier, you fucking dumbass! I could’ve used some cheaper illegal textbooks!”

..

“Are you sure he even knows Latin?” Hakyeon asked for the thousandth time on their way to the guy’s dorm.

“I’m pretty sure he does, Hakyeon. He speaks several languages, even some dead ones. He translates medical and engineering articles for journals. He’s kind of a genius around here.” 

“Why do you sound proud?” Hakyeon looked at him suspiciously.

“I... I’m not. It’s just really impressive.”

“Wait... what are we even going to tell him about the book? That we wanna know for fun?” Hakyeon did not want to share his secret with anyone else.

“We don’t have to explain anything to him until we’re paying him. We’re here.” He knocked on the door three times. After a minute or two, a sleepy dude opened the door. He did not look like a genius.

“Is that him?” Hakyeon whispered.

“We want to speak to Kong.” Taekwoon said to the guy at the door, ignoring Hakyeon’s question. The guy moved out of the way without saying anything.

Further into the room sat a guy behind three large screens with headphones on. Taekwoon had no idea what he was doing. 

“Uh… hi. Mister Kong?” Taekwoon called as loud as he could without shouting. No answer. He probably couldn’t hear them, too focused on whatever he was doing. It looked like computer coding. Was he a hacker too?

Taekwoon poked the guy’s arm this time and he jumped.

“Dude! You scared the shit outta me!” He had a nice deep voice. He removed the headset and got off his chair and Hakyeon finally got to see the guy’s face. He had an impressive jawline.

“Oh, Taekwoon-ssi. It’s you. You said you had a job for me?” he said, shaking Taekwoon’s hand briefly. He seemed polite.

“Yes. This is my friend Hakyeon. We have a book in Latin.” 

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you...” Hakyeon stretched his hand toward the handsome man.

“Hongbin. But people call me Kong.” He smiled as he reached to shake Hakyeon’s hand and-  _ Woah! Are those dimples? _

“Hakyeon stop making heart eyes and give him the book,” Taekwoon whispered in his ear. Right. The book. He unzipped his backpack and pulled the thick, ancient book out.

“Woah, did you steal that from a museum?” Hongbin said.

“No, just my grandma’s bookcase,” Hakyeon laughed nervously and handed Hongbin the book. He opened it carefully, looking through some random pages.

“You don’t want a full translation of this thing, do you? Because one: that would take months. And two, that would cost you a ton.” He looked between the two of them knowing they couldn’t possibly afford whatever it would cost. 

Hakyeon didn’t think this would happen.

“But if you’re looking for specific info in there I could work something out. But you have to tell me what you’re looking for.” The problem was that they didn’t know what they were looking for. 

‘Any useful info’ wasn’t going to help much unless they told the guy the truth about Hakyeon. He had to think fast.

“We’re… writing a paper about witchcraft’s history and since I had this book I thought we might get some useful information out of it. Specifically about… a type of shapeshifters.” That was the best Hakyeon could do. At least it would give the guy somewhere to start.

“That still doesn’t help much…” Hongbin sighed, rubbing his chin. Hakyeon’s face fell.

“Tell you what, I will skim over it and pull out some key points. You can look them over and decide which one you want details about.” Hongbin suggested. Hakyeon and Taekwoon beamed.

“Do we have to pay now or…?” Hakyeon asked.

“No, it’s fine because I know Taekwoon. You can pay when we’re done.” The guy smiled, showing off his dimples again.

“Oh, that’s very considerate. Thank you.”

“No problem. Just let me take pictures of the pages and you can take the book with you.”

..

Hakyeon was staying at home, like most of the time these days. The stress was too much and his friends couldn’t always go with him, so it left him to stay in the apartment as soon as their classes were over for the day. It was hard for him, not seeing his friends and hanging out with them; he was a social butterfly. He didn’t know if he could do this for a year. He hoped that Hongbin would call them soon. 

He heard keys turning in the lock. One of his roommates was back.

“Hey Yeon,” Taekwoon called from the doorstep.

“Hi, Taek. What are those?” Hakyeon asked, noticing a couple of huge bags in Taekwoon’s hands.

“Hiking equipment,” he replied, dragging the bags inside.

“What? Hiking? Did you hit your head somewhere? Let me see your head-”

“Stop, I’m fine. I think it’s good for us!” Taekwoon begged, smacking Hakyeon’s hand away from his face.

“ _ Us _ ? What do you mean us?” Hakyeon asked with wide eyes. There was no way Jung-introvert-Taekwoon was suggesting to go hiking.

“I mean you and me. Also I meant more like camping.”

“Wha... Where is this coming from? Does Jaehwan want to bring someone? Or  _ worse _ ! Throw a  _ party _ ?”

“ _ Relax! _ I haven’t even told him about this.” He sighed and sat down beside Hakyeon on the couch. “Look, I just thought it might be a good idea to get out of here for the weekend so you wouldn’t have to stay in the apartment. And it’s only about 60 miles to the camping site.”

Hakyeon was speechless. He couldn’t believe the younger would do something like that for him. 

“Taekwoon, I… Thank you. I don’t know what to say.” Taekwoon blushed and dropped his head low and shook his head.

“But how are we going to go there?” Hakyeon asked. None of them had a car and they couldn’t call an uber to the camping site.

“I... borrowed Sanghyuk’s car,” Taekwoon answered shyly.

“How did you do that? Did you pay him?”

“It doesn’t matter, go pack your stuff. We’re leaving early tomorrow.” Hakyeon didn’t need to know what he promised Sanghyuk in return for the car. “Pack warm clothes.”

“I know.”

..

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Hakyeon said for the hundredth time since they had woken up at 5am. They had just started the drive towards the site.

“Yes.”

“Why are you driving so slow?” Hakyeon asked as if he was physically unable to not talk. He had to say something.

“I’m not. We’re going as fast as the law says we should be going.”

Hakyeon pouted like a kid who was told to not interrupt the grownups. 

“By the way, why did you buy all the equipment? I’m sure they rent them there at the park.”

“I would never in a million years sleep in a rented tent and sleeping bag.” He winced. God knows what people do in there.

“But what are we gonna do with them? It’s not like we’re gonna camp every weekend.”

“They were on sale, don’t worry. It’s what gave me the idea to do this,” Taekwoon said calmly. He wasn’t lying; he had gotten them for a good deal.

“Wait, so you thought of going camping because the stuff was on sale?” Hakyeon was holding his belly and laughing. 

“Don’t make me regret it,” Taekwoon said, glaring at the road.

“Okay okay, sorry. But it’s so funny. I didn’t take for the type!”

“We’re almost there,” Taekwoon said, pointing at the sign pointing toward their exit.

“Maybe you weren’t driving that slow after all,” Hakyeon teased, pinching Taekwoon’s arm.

“Ow! Of course I wasn’t.”

They pulled over to the parking spot provided for the campers. There were a few more cars and a couple of camper vans.

“I always wondered what it’s like living in those vans,” Hakyeon said as he stepped out of Sanghyuk’s 2002 Suzuki Swift. That car was really something. Apparently it belonged to Sanghyuk’s sister until she married.

“I didn’t. Why would you give up having a solid stable home for… this?” Taekwoon pointed at the vans.

“Isn’t exciting? Having a portable home? And travel the world without having to worry about staying at dirty motel rooms?” 

“Sure, but I don’t trust that thing either.”

They offloaded their bags and went towards the register cabin. It was like register office, but in a cabin.

“Hi! Welcome the Green Surface Camp!” the girl at the desk said with a high voice. She looked way too cheerful for 7am.

“Hi, we’re…” Hakyeon started but the girl didn’t wait for him.

“Is this your first time camping here?”

“It’s our first time ever,” Hakyeon said, fake smiling. He could feel the girl judging them.

“Alright, here’s the map. You can choose any spot in the green area. And fill these out.” She gave them a paper each. It was basic information. They filled it quickly and paid the fee and were about to leave, but the girl talked again. 

“Oh! And please, no loud noises after 9pm!” she called after them. They turned around in confusion.

“Okay...?” Hakyeon said, rolling his eyes.

They followed the signs that were basically everywhere. They didn’t even need the map at that point. They had to walk for about 20 minutes to reach the camping spots. It was a gorgeous view. They walked another 5 minutes to find an empty and semi-flat surface to set up their tent.

“What did she even mean by loud noises? It’s not like we have a TV here- oh.” Hakyeon went red as soon as it clicked.

“Wha… She...! Why...?” Taekwoon was having trouble forming words. He didn’t know if it was because of the embarrassment or the fury.

“It’s fine, she was just doing her job. It probably happens a lot here you know,” Hakyeon said, trying to calm the younger down. He looked like he was having a meltdown.

“No? Why would you…  _ here?  _ In the _ wild _ ? And other people!” He was starting to shake.

“Some people are into that I guess,” Hakyeon said, looking away, not wanting to seem suspicious. Not that Taekwoon would notice anyway. “Let’s set up our tent and then go look around. We can take a ton of cute pics!” 

“Don’t like pictures,” Taekwoon said coldly like an angry cat.

“Fine, then you can take my pictures. The sun will make my skin glow so nicely,” Hakyeon said, taking a deep breath of the fresh air and dropping his head back, closing his eyes his face to the sky.

The sun really did look good on him.

..

They had walked all day, only coming back for a late lunch. Taekwoon had packed them sandwiches. They had walked into the woods, with their maps of course, met a few small animals and had taken maybe a thousand pictures. Hakyeon may or may not have sneaked a few pictures of Taekwoon when he was talking to a small cat. And when he crouched down to smell a wildflower.

The had marshmallow and sausage to cook on fire for their dinner, but that meant they had to make a fire. They even had a small brazier bowl but neither of them had ever made fire before.

“What if we burn the whole forest?” Hakyeon said, refusing the light the match to light the wood.

“We have the bowl thing  _ SO _ you won’t burn it. Just do it Hakyeon, unless you want us to freeze!” Taekwoon begged.

“It was your stupid idea, so why don’t you do it yourself?!” Hakyeon shouted with his hands fisted in his sides.

“Maybe we should just go home,” Taekwoon huffed. Maybe he was afraid of fire. A little. He closed his eyes in fear because he knew what was coming.

“Oh  _ now _ you want to gome home? Well, too bad becau-” Hakyeon’s voice died all of a sudden.

Taekwoon opened his eyes slowly, looking around.

“Yeon?” _ Shit he must have changed. _

He circled around himself, looking everywhere but the ground, where he should’ve looked. A small squeak came from somewhere. He looked down at his feet. 

There was a small grey squirrel with his tiny hands on Taekwoon’s shoe.

“Ha...Hakyeon?” He bent down carefully to look at the small animal closely.

Another squeak.

“Oh my god. It’s really you.” He put his palm in front of him so he could climb into his hands. 

“Look at you,” he cooed. “Looks like I’m gonna have to light the fire…” Taekwoon laughed nervously. He picked the lighter that was left on the ground in the spot human Hakyeon was standing. He put the squirrel ‘Hakyeon’ in his chest pocket. He thought he should take some pictures too. Hakyeon looked too adorable.

“Let me find a long stick,” he said, looking around for a thin broken branch to use as something to light the fire without having to get to close. He could feel Hakyeon judging him.

“Stop judging me when you were afraid to do it,” he teased.

Luckily, he found a stick a few meters away from their tent. He carefully lit the end of it, keeping it as far away as possible from his body and placing the stick under the pile of coal on the bowl. They had a perfect fire in less than 5 minutes.

“Are you having fun in there, little guy?” Taekwoon teased, looked down at the adorable little creature chilling in his pocket. He pet Hakyeon’s squirrel head with the tip of his fingers and made the other squeak.

“I’m here doing all the heavy work,” he said, crouching to get the food out of the basket, careful not to accidentally drop his tiny friend.

“I like cooking though, so it’s fine.” He didn’t really know why he got so talkative whenever Hakyeon shifted. He wasn’t sure if it was to comfort Hakyeon or himself.

He put some marshmallows and sausages on two silver sticks and held them on top of the heat. The spicy smell of sausage and the sweet smell of marshmallow was making his stomach growl. He was humming softly while waiting for the sausage to cook. The silence of the forest and the sound of burning wood and fire was calming. 

He carefully took a piece of sausage off the stick when he felt like it was cooked enough. He sliced a tiny part using his teeth (because they didn’t bring any knives) and held it over to Hakyeon. He seemed to hesitate for a few seconds but eventually took the small piece of food in his tiny hands and started biting and chewing in a way that could only be explained as ‘a squirrel way’.

Taekwoon took his phone out of his pocket to record the moment. Jaehwan would love this.

The second he tapped on the camera icon he felt a huge weight on his lap.

There was Hakyeon, back in human form, sitting on his lap with legs bent and hands holding a tiny piece of sausage close to his mouth. Their faces were only inches apart since they were almost the same height, Hakyeon shorter by an inch or two. They were frozen staring at each other in shock. Neither of them really knew what to do. It was Hakyeon who finally shook himself out of it and jumped down from the younger’s lap. It was the second time he was finding himself in the other’s lap.

“I…” Hakyeon opened his mouth but nothing more came out.

“There is more sausage in the basket,” Taekwoon said with a shaky voice.

“Right.”

They ate in silence. It was a bit awkward.

“Heard anything from Hongbin yet?” Hakyeon asked, breaking the silence.

“Not yet. I could send him a text if you want,” Taekwoon said, keeping his eyes on his marshmallow stick.

“No, it’s fine. Don’t wanna rush him or anything,” 

After a few more moments of awkward silence Taekwoon spoke. “So… How was it?”

“What?” 

“You know, being an animal.”

“Oh… well. It was definitely weird being that small. Everything else was so big,” he chuckled. 

“It shouldn’t have been all that different,” Taekwoon teased, hiding his laugh behind his half eaten marshmallow stick.

“Fuck off slenderman! I’m just an inch shorter than you,” Hakyeon said, louder than before, taking a marshmallow from the back and throwing at the younger, which he dodged.

“Alright, calm down Mister Cha giraffe,” Takwoon said, laughing so hard he almost fell from his chair.

“Hey, leave my neck out of this!” Hakyeon shouted, covering his neck with both hands. Somehow it was still not completely covered. They both laughed for a good 10 minutes.

..

“Have you ever done this before?” Hakyeon asked while laying his sleeping bag in the tent beside Taekwoon’s.

“Sleeping inside a tent?”

“Yeah, or outside in general.” Hakyeon finally slipped under the thick cover, rolling over to face Taekwoon.

“We used to sleep on the roof sometimes during the summer, me and my sisters,” Taekwoon replied. His hands were inside the bag, seemingly crossed on his chest and he was laying on his back like Dracula in a coffin. 

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah, we used to stay up really late watching the stars and wait for a shooting star to wish on and stuff.”

“Did you ever see one? What did you wish for?” Hakyeon asked, laying on his elbow so he could see the other’s face better.

“I don’t know, dumb stuff a 9-year-old boy wants. I think we only ever saw one.”

“Oh, come on, there must’ve been something you really wanted or you wouldn’t stay up late to make a wish!”

Taekwoon huffed. “I wanted to be a professional soccer player.”

“Aw, Taekwoonie that’s so adorable! You would’ve made a handsome soccer player.”

“Yeah well. Guess it was just an airplane.”

“Oh come on, you’ll be a handsome lawyer now, it’s okay,” he cooed. “But what happened?”

“We’re having pillow talk now?” Taekwoon sighed.

“Sure, why not? You decided we should come here, after all.”

“I had a leg injury. I was never gonna make it big after that.” Taekwoon remembered the feeling when they told him - although the injury wasn’t severe enough to stop him from ever playing, it was going to make his process slow down and it was a long shot. He was empty. He felt like the one thing he wanted most in his life was suddenly taken away from him. It was a rough couple of years after that for everyone; for him because he had lost everything, or at least felt like it, and for others because they had to deal with a short-tempered and angry Taekwoon all the time. But his family understood and they helped him get back up and now here he was pursuing another passion he found out he had years after the soccer incident.

“I’m… so sorry Taekwoon. I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“No it’s fine, it’s in the past. And,” he finally turned his head to the side and looked at Hakyeon with a smile. “I’m happy where I am.”

Hakyoen blushed, looking down and avoiding Taekwoon’s eyes. “I’m glad.”

A few minutes passed in calm silence until Taekwoon’s teeth started chattering.

“Taek, you’re shivering!”

“N...no, It...t’s f...fine,” he stuttered.

“Clearly it’s not! Ugh… now would be a good time to turn into an electric blanket or something!” Hakyeon said through gritted teeth and shut his eyes, seemingly trying to shift at will.

“We d...don’t have ele...ctricity!”

“Oh, right.” Hakyeon opened his eyes and looked around. “Look, we have the two thin blankets but they’re small and, well. Thin. So we should sort of cuddle.” Hakyeon said, grabbing the two said blankets they used to cover their legs when they were sitting outside.

“So t...that’s your brrr...rliant idea? Cuddling?” 

“Yeah! This is a basic survival hack! We share the heat,” Hakyeon said, unzipping the left side of his sleeping bag and then doing the same with Taekwoon’s so they could cuddle with nothing but their clothes between them.

Taekwoon didn’t make a fuss since he didn’t have any better idea. But for two people as tall as them, cuddling wasn’t without any challenge. Too many arms and too many legs! But they figured it out. Hakyeon ended up back hugging Taekwoon. They were spooning. He pulled the cover of the bags on and dropped the blankets on top, and in just two minutes Taekwoon’s shivering stopped.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” Hakyeon beamed, wrapping his arms tighter around the younger.

Taekwoon just nodded, his lids already feeling heavy now that he was warm and cozy.

“Next time maybe we should bring a travel space heater or something,” Hakyeon said. Taekwoon just groaned. He didn’t really want to think about a possible next time right now. He’d had enough drama and stress for months. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “That’s an interesting book your grandma got in her bookcase.” He winked.
> 
> Hakyeon laughed nervously. What he was most afraid of was happening.
> 
> “I know right? She’s a really interesting old lady,” Hakyeon finally managed to say.
> 
> “Look, I don’t wanna blackmail you or anything but you need to tell me the truth if you want my help.” Hongbin suddenly looked serious.
> 
> “I don’t know what you’re talking about, we’re just writing a paper for-”
> 
> “Please, let’s not insult each other’s intelligence. Let me be more clear. You’re messing with some seriously dangerous magic and you need to tell me exactly what’s going on.”

“Hey, I got your text. Should we go now?” Hakyeon said, panting; he had run all the way from the literature department to their apartment.

“No, he said we should meet him at 10,” Taekwoon replied calmly while stirring something in the kitchen.

“Why can’t we go now?” Hakyeon whined. He had run all that way for nothing. 

“Because they’re having some gaming contest or something.”

“Wait,  _ the _ game contest?” There was sort of an unofficial gaming club with monthly and weekly contests. It was a big deal among gamers.

“I think? Isn’t Sanghyuk in it too?” 

“Yeah he is, but I didn’t know Hongbin was too. He didn’t seem… I don’t know, the ‘gamer’ type.”

“But he is. He’s won champion multiple times apparently. I think I saw the trophies?” 

“Wow, that’s… interesting. Wait but that ends at… 9ish?”

“Maybe he wants to shower. I don’t know, Hakyeon. You can ask him yourself when we meet him later now let me cook my chicken in peace.”

..

“I’m kinda nervous,” Hakyeon said on the stairs to Hongbin’s dorm.

“Why?” 

“I don’t know… what if there are more fucked up shit going on with this… magic or gene or whatever?” Hakyeon whined, rubbing his sweaty palms on his jeans.

“Even if we do, don’t you think it’s better to be prepared?” Taekwoon asked, taking one of Hakyeon’s hands in his and smiling.

Hakyeon felt himself calm down immediately, as if Taekwoon had a secret calming potion. 

“How did you do that?” Hakyeon asked, not letting the other’s hands go as they continued walking.

“Do what?”

“Making me unnervous.”

“That’s not a word. How are you majoring in lit?” Taekwoon said, shaking his head in disappointment.

“It is a word because _ I _ ,a lit major, just made it a word. Answer the question,” Hakyeon said, fluttering his eyelashes.

“I don’t know. I’m good with kids.” He shrugged.

“What do you mean you’re good with kids? Did you just-” Hakyeon ate his words at seeing a familiar face leaving Hongbin’s dorm just as they reached there.

“Sanghyuk?” Hakyeon called. The younger snapped his head around at them so fast Hakyeon thought he almost broke his neck. The kid looked, for lack of a better word, freshly fucked. His hair was messy and disheveled, face red and lips swollen. Hakyeon did not need that image in his head. The kid was like a younger brother to him.

“Hakyeon hyung? Taekwoon hyung? Oh, uh… Hi.” The boy seemed shocked and embarrassed.

Hakyeon looked over to Taekwoon to find him in a similar state. He turned back to the younger just to find him staring at his and Taekwoon’s hands that were still joined. Hakyeon let go of Taekwoon’s hand.

“You guys are here to see Bin?” he asked, running his fingers through his hair, trying to make them not stick in every direction.

“Yes, is he... free?” Taekwoon asked, voice so low it was almost a whisper. He got like that when he got embarrassed.

“Yeah, he should be. I gotta go, see you guys later,” he said, winking at Hakyeon with a knowing smile. That brat thought he was slick. He wasn’t.

“I do not want to know what was going on in there 5 minutes ago,” Taekwoon whispered, scrunching his nose.

“You think I do? Let’s just pretend we didn’t see anything,” Hakyeon suggested and Taekwoon nodded quickly. They knocked on the door twice.

Hongbin opened the door looking a lot more put together than Hakyeon was expecting him to be.

“Right on time. Come on in,” he said as he opened the door. Hakyeon and Taekwoon looked at each other for a second before stepping into the dorm room. The computer was on with scans of different pages of the book open on the screen. Hongbin sat at his desk chair, locking his fingers together on his lap. 

“Please have a seat.” He nodded to his bed across from the chair.

Hakyeon saw Taekwoon flinch at the corner of his eye but he grabbed his elbow and pulled him down to sit on the edge of the bed with him. He looked like he was physically in pain.

The silence was broken by Hongbin bursting into laughter. 

“You can relax, we didn’t fuck on the bed.” He chuckled.

“No, we didn’t-” Hakyeon tried to deny knowing anything but Hongbin wasn’t stupid.

“It’s fine, I don’t care. The walls are thin and it was written all over Taekwoon hyung’s face.” Taekwoon opened his mouth but nothing came out.

“Anyway, I gathered a list of the topics. I have to say though...” He leaned closer towards them. “That’s an interesting book your grandma got in her bookcase.” He winked.

Hakyeon laughed nervously. What he was most afraid of was happening.

“I know right? She’s a really interesting old lady,” Hakyeon finally managed to say.

“Look, I don’t wanna blackmail you or anything but you need to tell me the truth if you want my help.” Hongbin suddenly looked serious.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, we’re just writing a paper for-”

“Please, let’s not insult each other’s intelligence. Let me be more clear. You’re messing with some seriously dangerous magic and you need to tell me exactly what’s going on.”

“I’m  _ not _ messing with anything okay? It’s not like I had a  _ choice _ !” Hakyeon completely lost it for a second and blurted things out. “I did not ask for any of this! I just wanted a normal life and to-” 

_ Why does it always happen when I’m talking?! _

“Oh wow…” Hongbin said, looking at the beautiful purple flower laying on the bed beside Taekwoon, who was frozen.

“So my great gramps wasn’t crazy…” he said without taking his eyes off of the flower. He reached out to touch it but Taekwoon swatted his hands away and picked it up himself, gently putting it in his lap.

“What do you mean?” Taekwoon asked.

“My great-great-grandfather used to date a girl when he was 17. I found his diary. He said she was a... witch, that she could turn into any object she wanted. Everyone called him crazy, he left his family and started a new life somewhere far from everyone he knew.” He took a deep breath and shook himself of the nostalgia and continued. “The flower, it’s purple hyacinth. It’s a symbol of regret and sorrow.”

Taekwoon’s heart clenched. Hakyeon must’ve been under so much stress and pressure.

There was no point in denying it anymore so Taekwoon filled Hongbin in on everything they already knew about the gene while they waited for Hakyeon to shift back.

“I know this was all kinda sudden and you guys didn’t plan on telling me about this but you can trust me, I won’t tell anyone. I want to help you guys. It’s what my grandpa would’ve wanted,” Hongbin said sincerely.

“Thank you, Hongbin, I…” and Hakyeon was back, sleeping on Hongbin’s bed.

“It’s fine, let him sleep. We could work on the book together if you want?” Hongbin proposed.

“Yeah, I wanna help.”

..

Hakyeon rolled on his bed and reached for his extra pillow he keeps between his bed and the wall. But he couldn’t find it no matter how far he reached.  _ Strange. Wait, where’s the wall? _

He wasn’t in his own bed, he realized half-asleep.

Hongbin.

He opened his eyes. He was indeed in Hongbin’s room. And in his bed. He remembered meeting Hongbin with Taekwoon. And that Hongbin said some stuff and he panicked and… _ shit. _

He jumped. Hongbin knew.

He looked around looking for the guy, and Taekwoon. He could smell greasy food. He looked over to the couch to find both boys asleep in weird and possibly uncomfortable positions. Hongbin had fallen asleep with his head on the arms rest and one leg under him, which was going to be painfully numb, and the older on the ground with his head on the coffee table. There was food and drink everywhere. And papers. Lots of paper scattered everywhere. Were they solving a crime or something?

He finally tiptoed towards the other two and gently shook his friend’s shoulder.

“Taek, wake up.” The latter mumbled in his sleep without waking up. “This isn’t going to work...” Taekwoon was the hardest person to wake up. One time he punched Jaehwan in his sleep because they tried to wake him up. 

Hakyeon went into the kitchenette. There was a cheap coffee maker; he just needed to find coffee. The shelves were so full everything almost fell out when Hakyeon opened them. At least now he knew what Hongbin spent all his money on. Snacks. He finally found a jar that looked like it contained coffee. He smelled it just to be sure.  _ Yup. Definitely coffee. _ Hakyeon couldn’t say he was a fan, but living with Taekwoon he had gotten used to the smell so he didn’t mind it as much.

He poured coffee in the biggest mug he could find and brought it to the younger who was still asleep on the coffee table. His neck wasn’t going to be happy.

He moved the mug in front of Taekwoon’s face for a while and then put it away in case the other got violent.

“Daegunie, wake up. I made coffee,” he whispered in Taekwoon’s ear. Another groan left Taekwoon’s mouth; his face twitched and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Cuh...ffhee…”

“Say please,” Hakyeon giggled. He loved it when Taekwoon was half asleep.

“Pee...ez…” he mumbled. It was enough for Hakyeon.

“Good boy. Here you go,” he cooed, petting his hair then holding the mug in front of him. The other’s hand lifted to take the mug but Hakyeon knew he was still basically asleep so he held the mug for him. Taekwoon’s hand looked like it was being controlled by a string tied around his wrist. It was kind of hilarious.

The younger then lifted his head off the table, eyes still closed. Hakyeon brought the mug closer to his face. Taekwoon was holding Hakyeon’s wrist to guide the mug to his mouth. He sipped the coffee, magically not spilling a drop. And then _ finally _ he opened his eyes. Hakyeon was staring at him in awe.

“Hi.”

“Good morning sleepyhead. You mind telling me what happened here?” He finally gave Taekwoon the mug now that he was awake. Taekwoon immediately inhaled the coffee.

“Uh… how much do you remember?” he mumbled, lips still attached to the mug.

“I remember Hongbin saying some… stuff,” he said, looking over to Hongbin’s sleeping figure. Somehow he still looked handsome. “And then I remember feeling scared and… sad, and then I think I blacked out.”

“Yeah so… you shifted,” Taekwoon said, not meeting his eyes.

“I _ what _ ?” He gasped. This couldn’t be happening.

“It’s okay, we can trust him. He had already suspected it,” Taekwoon said while rubbing the older’s arm in a soothing way. 

“What... how?”

“I think his great-grandfather used to date one of your kind. He said he wants to help, so I told him what we already knew and we were reading the ancient book all night last night.” He pointed to the printed scans of the book and the hundreds of notes that were stuck to them. 

“Oh… you guys did all of this last night?” It was impressive work. Even if it wasn’t very… organized.

“The majority of it. And Bin did most of it really, I just helped putting the pieces together.”

“Taek, I don’t know what to say-” 

“You don’t have to say anything, we all want to help you because you’re the sweetest person I’ve ever met my whole life and you would’ve done the same for us.” Taekwoon gave him a warm smile and squeezed his hand in his larger ones.

“Thank you, Taek, for everything.” He sighed, finally looking up at the younger, realizing they were sitting extremely close. He was met by Taekwoon’s dark and feline eyes. The air between them changed and they both forgot about the existence of the other person in the room. Hakyeon felt like he was being pulled towards the Taekwoon by an invisible string. Their lips were only inches apart. They were breathing the same air. Hakyeon looked at Taekwoon’s small pink lips. They looked so soft and kissable… Taekwoon closed his eyes and their lips had barely touched when loud music started playing out of nowhere. They both jumped away from each other with a loud yelp. It also woke up the other person in the room. The sound was actually coming from Hongbin’s phone. The guy had some 2000s hits as his alarm tone.

A deep voice came from the other side of the table.

“Fuck… what time is it?”

“Uh…” Hakyeon shakily touched his pants looking for his phone. “Ten forty?”

“Too early, but it’s fine.” He stretched his arms above his head, making his small waist peek out from under his hoodie. 

“I made coffee, hope you don’t mind,” Hakyeon said, not looking at Hongbin’s stomach.

“Not at all, would you pour me a cup while I freshen up? Then we could tell you what we found last night.”

“Of course.” Hakyeon was on his feet in a blink.

..

“So…?” Hakyeon asked impatiently, fingers fiddling on his lap.

“Hold on, I need to gather my thoughts,” Hongbin said, bent on the ground putting the papers beside each other and changing them occasionally as if he was solving a puzzle.

_ Maybe if you had organized from the beginning… _

_ “ _ Alright,” Hongbin said, finally sitting back on his knees. “Keep in mind I’m not even halfway through this.”

“I appreciate what you’re doing for me, Hongbin.” Hakyeon smiled, trying not to let his anxiousness show.

“You better write a better book when you got the hang of this. This shit was such a pain in the ass, I’m not sure if its purpose is to guide or to confuse.” Hongbin huffed in annoyance. 

“Anyway. Let’s start with the basics. The book is mainly about the rules and the laws of the magic. It explained, not so clearly may I add, why the magic chooses who it chooses. It’s not about being good or bad, weak or strong, it’s more like a test? Sort of?” Hongbin explained while looking at the papers scattered all over the floor.

“A test?” Hakyeon asked with wide eyes. Why would he be chosen?

“Yeah, it chooses the ones who are going to have to make difficult choices or are going to face some hardship in their life. They could use the magic to work in their favor and in other good ways or they could mistreat it.”

“So does that mean the magic will go away if you pass the test?” Hakyeon asked excitedly.

“Not exactly,” Hongbin sighed. “If you pass the great test and if you prove to be worthy, you will be…” He paused, looking at his notes. “Ab ovo.”

“Ab-what?”

“Ab ovo. It’s Latin for ‘from the beginning’ or ‘from the egg’.” 

“Am I going to become an egg?!” Hakyeon gasped.

“No, let me finish! It means that you will be the master of it all. You could shift into anything. Sort of like  _ Avatar: The Last Airbender _ .”

Hakyeon just stared at him in shock.

“But that’s  _ if  _ you pass the test.”

“So what if I don’t?” Hakyeon finally snapped out of his shock.

“Well, that depends. If you didn’t do any major  _ bad things  _ with your magic you’ll get to keep it but it will be limited as it seems.” 

“And if I mess up?” Hakyeon asked quietly, almost like he was afraid.

“Why, are you planning to rob a bank or something?” Hongbin chuckled.

“No, of course not! But I need to know.”

“Well, that’s in the next chapter and I haven’t gotten there yet. But as long as you’re not using your magic to do anything that’s morally wrong, I think you should be fine.” He smiled, showing off his dimples.

“I’m not really using it for anything. I don’t have full control over it.”

“Yet,” said Taekwoon from the other couch who had been silent all along.

..

“Welcome back, lovebirds.” Jaehwan smirked from his spot on the couch.

“What- we’re not…” Taekwoon denied. 

“Did you guys have a threesome with the Hongbin dude?” Hakyeon cried in frustration. Sometimes he wished he could make Jaehwan’s mouth disappear.

“God no! Him and freaking Sanghyuk are banging!” Hakyeon blurted out before releasing that maybe he shouldn’t have.

“ _ What?”  _ the younger was on his feet in a blink, staring at the two in shock. “Sanghyuk?  _ Han _ Sanghyuk?? _ ” _

_ “ _ Uh... yeah? Why are you being so dramatic? I thought you liked his friend, Wonshik.”

“I do! It’s not that. It’s just… Don’t you guys know their history?”

“Do I look like I know what goes on in everyone’s life like a nosy little shit like you?” Hakyeon rolled his eyes. Taekwoon snorted behind him.

“No, you look like someone who lives under a rock. They’re rivals and it’s not a secret. They had a match against each other.” 

“Huh…” Taekoon said, leaving to take a shower and get rid of the clothes he was in all night. He felt like shit.

“Anyway. When can I meet the guy? I have some important questions to ask him,” Jaehwan said, sitting back on the couch and crossing his legs.

“Never. What questions?” Hakyeon knew he probably shouldn’t have asked but he had a feeling that Jaehwan would tell him anyway.

“One: can you change your gender? Or better, can you change your genitals only?”

“ _ Wha-”  _ Hakyeon could never unhear that.

“Two: can you turn into half an animal? I mean, like can you get just tails and ears?” Hakyeon just blinked at him, not believing what he was hearing. “I’m not asking for me of course. I’m not into that sort of stuff.”

“Then who the fuck are you asking these for?” Hakyeon growled.

“For someone who is.” Whatever that was supposed to mean. 

Hakyeon left without another word. There was no point arguing with that manchild.

..

_ ‘Be careful child,’ a voice echoed through the void. He wasn’t even sure if it was a man’s voice or a woman’s. _

_ ‘Don’t get too greedy…’ another voice whispered from behind him. Hakyeon turned around but no one was there. It was just emptiness all around. _

_ ‘Don’t listen to your demons,’ another voice called but this one sounded like it was coming from inside his head. _

_ ‘Your end is near.’ _

“Ahh!” he gasped, waking up drenched in sweat.

_ What the hell was that?  _ He was panting, breathing short breaths.

His bedroom door clicked open, revealing Taekwoon with bedhead and puffy eyes.

“You okay, Yeon? Taekwoon whispered.

“I…’m fine Woonie, sorry to wake you up.” Hakyeon tried to even his breathing and not sound as shaken as he really was.

“You were making distressed noises.”

“Distressed noise- what time is it even?” Hakyeon asked, seemingly to no one because like hell Taekwoon knew what time it was. He checked his phone and suddenly regretted it because the light was blindenning but he managed to catch the clock. It was past 4. They had about 2 more hours to sleep before they had to wake up for classes. “Go back to bed Woonie, it’s late… early. Whatever.”

Taekwoon walked into his room, completely ignoring him and dropping face down on the bed beside him. Half of his long body was hanging in the air. Hakyeon groaned. He scooted further towards the wall and pulled Taekwoon on the bed until he wasn’t in danger of falling.

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong,” he said, voice muffled into the pillow. 

Hakyeon huffed his breath out. He looked at the boy beside him, messy hair and wrinkled shirt that was pulled up to show the soft skin of his back.

“I just had a weird dream, that’s all.” 

“Tell me.”

“Taekwoon, it’s past 4! Go back to bed,” he whined. “Plus, I don’t even remember it.” That was a complete lie. He remembered it as if it had just happened for real and not in a dream. He had had vivid dreams before but this one was not the same.

“Don’t lie,” Taekwoon said dryly, finally turning his head over the side.

“God… okay. I was in some… void and there were voiced saying weird stuff.”

“What stuff?” He was not getting out of it so he might as well tell him so they could go back to sleep.

“Like… be careful, don’t get greedy and…” Hakyeon paused, thinking about the last one. It sent shivers down his spine.

“And?” Taekwoon pushed up on his arms and looked at him with concern.

“And that… my end is near,” Hakyeon said, voice so small Taekwoon almost didn’t hear him.

“Do you think it meant something?”

“I don’t know, but it felt real. Too real. Like… my soul was actually there.” Hakyeon’s voice shook at the end. The idea of messing with something he barely understood and possibly messing up was stressful enough, but now it was a matter of life and death.

Suddenly, there were long arms around his shoulders and a ball of soft black hair in his face.

“It’s okay Yeonie, I’m here,” the younger whispered in his ear. Hakyeon’s heart skipped a beat. Taekwoon continued to surprise him every day. How did people think he was cold and mean?

Hakyeon didn’t know what to say, so he just wrapped his arms around the younger’s middle and hugged him back.

Taekwoon pulled back after a few minutes. Hakyeon didn’t count.

“I’ll stay with you tonight,” he said without leaving a say for Hakyeon and pulled both of them down and under the covers.

Hakyeon couldn’t protest even if he wanted to. 

“Goodnight Woonie.”

“Goodnight Yeonie.”

..

The day after, Hakyeon was distracted. The voices in the dream were haunting him and on top of that he couldn’t stop thinking about Taekwoon’s face sleeping in front of him, lips almost pouting and cheek squished into the pillow and his long lashes’ shadow on his cheeks.

Taekwoon had fallen asleep immediately after they lied down. The boy could lay his head on a piece of rock and fall asleep instantly. Hakyeon was jealous. That left Hakyeon to stare at the younger’s face until his lids felt heavy and he fell asleep.

Hakyeon needed to talk to Hongbin. He had to ask him if he’d read anything about dreams and the consequences. He needed to know what the hell was he facing.

He texted the guy, telling him he’s coming over, but he got no answer. He went anyway; he figured he’d wait.

He knocked on his door hurriedly. His roommate answered the door. He looked high.

“Hello?”

“Hi, I wanted to talk to Hongbin-ssi. Is he here?” Hakyeon asked, faking his best smile and trying to be polite. He wanted to shove the guy aside and go find Hongbin himself, but his mother had not raised him like that.

“Nah man, he’s out. He should be back soon though. He has a game. Wanna wait inside?”

“Yes!” Haekyeon half shouted. The guy stepped aside and let him in but instead of closing the door after him he left. Hakyeon was stunned for a few minutes. Hongbin’s roommate was so weird.

He sat on the edge of Hongbin’s bed hesitantly and waited. He waited for about 15 minutes, texting both Taekwoon and Jaehwan. They didn’t answer since they were still in class. He huffed in annoyance. He should’ve called before coming.

Hakyeon felt dizzy, his eyes getting unfocused. No.  _ No no no no. This can’t be happening right now. _

He had turned into a sock, laying at the foot of Hongbin’s bed. It would be fine as long as Hongbin came back alone.

Some time passed. Hakyeon couldn’t tell how long; it wasn’t like he could check his phone. The magic had a strange way of working. He always changed back with his clothes on and anything else he was carrying would still be there.

The lock turned with jiggling sound of keys and the door opened, revealing Hongbin. 

And Sanghyuk.

_ Fuck. _

The door closed behind them when Hyuk kicked it. The younger pulled Hongbin closer in one swift motion, circling his huge arms around the smaller man’s middle. Hongbin giggled.

“Hyukie stop, Hakyeon texted that he’s coming over.”

“Well he’s not here yet, is he?” Sanghyuk smirked.

Well, guess what. He was there.

“I accept the challenge,” Sanghyuk stated and pushed the elder on the bed.

“What challenge?” Hongbin shrieked, falling on his back on the bed.

“To make you cum before Hakyeon hyung arrives.” 

“Don’t be stupid! We don’t know when he’s coming, he could be here in 30 seconds!” 

Sanghyuk rolled his eyes. He dragged his hands behind Hongbin over his ass and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Hongbin asked, trying to get his phone back. The younger was now sitting on top of the elder with his legs on both sides of Hongbin’s hips.

“Calling Hakyeon hyung.”

“Give it back!” Hongbin tried to sit up and take the phone but the younger was sitting heavily on top of him and holding the phone as far away from Hongbin as he could.

_ The number you have dialed can not be reached. Please try again later,  _ said the automated voice through Hongbin’s phone. Makes sense. There’s no service in the void that keeps Hakyeon’s personal belongings.

“Great. He can’t be anywhere near here because this whole area has great service.” Sanghyuk turned the screen towards Hongbin showing four bars of service.

_ I’m literally right here!  _ Hakyeon screamed but only he could hear it himself.

Sanghyuk threw the phone aside and bent forward and caught Hongbin’s lips. Hakyeon wanted to stab his own eyes and ears. He could never unsee the sight of the younger eating Hongbin’s face. 

“ _ Stop! _ ”

The two lovebirds stopped and turned around in a blink and Sanghyuk started shouting.

_ Wait, did that work?  _ He looked down and saw his hands and feet on the ground. He was back. Then he looked up to find Sanghyuk screaming at him in fear. Sanghyuk had seen him.

So he started screaming too.

“Shut up!” Hongbin shouted, surprisingly loud. They both went quiet, looking at Hongbin in shock. “Calm down. Both of you.” Hongbin pushed the younger off of him and went to grab Hakyeon’s hand, helping him up and to the chair, then left and grabbed two glasses of water from the kitchenette and handed them one each. Hakyeon took the glass in shaky hands and glued his eyes to it, not daring to look up. He could feel Sanghyuk’s eyes on him.

“H...he just... materialized... out of t...thin air,” he stuttered. Hongbin sighed, sitting on the bed beside him.

“Hakyeon,” he called. Hakyeon looked up carefully. “We have to tell him.”

Hakyeon didn’t reply; he couldn’t find his voice to. 

“I trust him. It’s okay,” Hongbin assured, voice warm and steady.

Hakyeon nodded shakily. Thank god Hongbin didn’t press him to talk because he couldn’t. 

Hongbin explained everything as briefly and simply as possible to Sanghyuk.

“That’s impossible.”

“Sanghyuk, you just saw it with your own eyes, he... “ Hongbin paused, turning to look at Hakyeon. “What had you turned into?”

“A sock,” Hakyeon answered dryly, suddenly feeling drained.

“He just turned back into a human after shifting into a sock!” Hongbin continued. Sanghyuk burst into laughter.

“I think I broke him,” Hakyeon sighed.

“No, he just needs some time. Anyway, why did you need to talk to me?”

“I uh….” This had all happened so quickly he almost forgot what he was there for. “I wanted to see if you had any new information from the book.”

“Not much, why? Did something happen?” 

Sanghyuk had eventually fallen silent and was listening to the other two’s conversation.

“I had a strange dream last night.” He swallowed nervously. The memories of that void were still as fresh as the second after he woke up. “It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt like… a void. It was empty, infinitely white from each direction with nothing else. And there were voices coming from each side and some from inside my own head.”

“What did they say?” Hongbin asked, already getting up to get his copies of the book. They were in a folder neatly organized inside his drawer.

“It was like they were trying to… warn me?” Hakyeon said hesitantly.

“About what?” Hongbin asked without looking up from the papers, going through them as if he was looking for something.

“My death. I think?” Hakyeon felt the tip of his finger freezing. He squeezed his fingers into a fist, trying to stop his hands from shaking. The younger looked up at him in shock.

“What did they say exactly?”

Hakyeon took a deep breath, trying to remember everything they said that he had been trying to forget since the previous night.

“‘Be careful child...’ 

‘Don’t get too greedy...’

‘Don’t listen to your demons’,” he breathed shakily. “And... ‘Your end is near’.”

“Did they sound familiar? The voices, I mean.”

“No… I don’t think so.” Hakyeon shook his head.

“There was something about… a place… Ah! Found it!” he shouted, holding a paper up happily. “In this part, it talks about a court. Somewhere they judge the ones who misuse their powers.” 

Hongbin picked up a huge book from his desk and started rummaging through the pages. Hakyeon guessed it was a dictionary or something. “There are 9 judges. The first ones of each clan.”

“There were others too?” Hakyeon asked in surprise. He thought his family was the only one.

“Yes, from different parts of the world apparently. The place is described as the White Court. It is a common ground where all clans and families can gather to decide the fate of a sinner,” Hongbin said while dragging his fingers on the paper.

“A court? Then why was I there? And I didn’t see anyone, it was just me and the voices.”

“I don’t know. It hasn’t mentioned people going there for any other reason…”

“Then what else does it say?”

“There are like… scripts? Of a few different courts. Each one with a different culprit and it looks like it’s a different sort of sin in each script,” Hongbin said, rubbing his temples as he kept on skimming.

“Like the seven deadly sins?”

“I think so. It would take some time to go through them all but I’ll do it as soon as I can, I promise.” Hongbin smiled. 

“Can you tell what the penalties were?” Hakyeon asked nervously. 

“Uh… let’s see.” He looked through the scripts for a few minutes before continuing. “It looks like they sentence the culprit to stay trapped in a non-human form for some time. The amount of time they stay that way depending on how bad the sin is. And usually, it’s the form the sin had been committed in. So like if you steal bread as a crow, you stay a crow for a year or something,”

“That’s… wow,” Hyuk said, who had been silent until then.

“Thank you Hongbin, I owe you one. Or ten! But I have to go now, call me if you find anything.” And he was gone.

..

“Hey Sanghyuk, is Wonshik here?” Jaehwan asked, standing in front of the cashier desk with Sanghyuk on the other side.

“Uh… Hi Jaehwan hyung, what can I get you?” 

“I just told you.” Jaehwan grinned.

“Right. He’s not here, he took the day off because he has some projects to work on. He might be in the lab?”

“Thanks Hyukie.” Jaehwan beamed. He ruffled the younger’s hair before running out towards the chemistry building.

The two had been flirting for the whole semester and Jaehwan loved making the younger flustered. Wonshik was a shy sweet thing and Jaehwan couldn’t wait to finally have him all to himself.

He texted Wonshik when he got to the building:

**-:** Hey handsome where are you?

**Wonshikie~:** Working on a project 🔫😫

**-:** Awww poor shikie （；へ：）

**-:** Want me to give you a handjob?

**-:** Hand* oops. Autocorrect hehe

**Wonshikie~:** Sure?

**-:** Which lab are in? ^.~ 

**Wonshikie~:** 102

_ That means first floor lab two… _

Jaehwan took the stairs two in each step. The lab was right in the corner of the hallway. He peeked inside through the glass window on the door; Wonshik was in there wearing a lab coat, gloves and goggles, and his hair was messy in a way that made him cute in a mad scientist way. He had a ton of papers around him on the desk and he kept writing and scratching in them. 

Jaehwan giggled and pushed the door open. The poor guy jumped.

“Jesus! What are you doing here?”

Jaehwan did his best sexy smirk as he walked towards the desk Wonshik was at. “Well, I’m here to give you a… hand.” he leaned on the desk and winked.

“Be careful, these are dangerous!” Wonshik gasped, pulling him off the table. They were suddenly too close.

“What can I do to help, doc?” Wonshik’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out and his face turned various shades of red and a bunch of nonsense noises left his tiny mouth.

“I’...m… nowhere near getting my PhD… yet.” He chuckled nervously.

“You look like one already though… with your sexy lab coat and goggles. Next thing you know you’re curing cancer.”

“That’s not…” Before Wonshik realized it his back was against the wall, trapped against Jaehwan’s body.

“What is it, doc?” Jaehwan said seducingly, tilting his head and looking at the other’s lips through his lashes. Wonshik looked like he wasn’t breathing.

Jaehwan inched his face closer until there was almost no space between their lips. Jaehwan could feel the warmth of the younger on him already.

After ten long seconds Wonshik took a deep breath and seemingly threw out all logic and closed the almost nonexistent distance between them, catching Jaehwan’s lips with his. Jaehwan moaned into the kiss and melted into Wonshik’s body, arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

“We shouldn’t…” Wonshik mumbled between their kiss after some time passed. Jaehwan looked up at him with sad puppy eyes. “Not here,” he corrected, kissing the tip of Jaehwan’s pointy nose.

“Your place?” Jaehwan grinned. 

Wonshik rubbed his neck. “My roommate is having a party… that’s why I’m doing my paper here. Well, the research and examinations for my paper.”

“Oh. Wait, so you would do all this science-y shit at your dorm if there wasn’t a party?” 

“Not the dangerous chemicals! And I’d bullshit some of it but I don’t usually do that. The professor lets us use the lab,” he said, blushing to his ears. He was such a nerd.

“Well, I have two roommates who will not be home if we’re lucky. If not, they will leave for their own sake,” Jaehwan said, pulling Wonshik by the wrist, not giving him time to protest.

..

“Come in!” Jaehwan pulled Wosnhik inside while giggling.

“What if they’re home?” Wonshik moaned; his wrist was starting to hurt from Jaehwan pulling him.

“I have my own room. And they can leave if it makes them so uncomfortable.” They walked into the common area to find Taekwoon sitting on the sofa with a… bird?

“You guys have a pet bird?” Wonshik gasped, running towards the sofa to take a better look.

Jaehwan look at Taekwoon and shrugged, silently asking what’s going on. It took Jaehwan a second to guess what it was from Taekwoon’s worried face.

“Uhh… Wonshik, maybe we should do this another time…” Jaehwan called but Wonshik didn’t hear him, too mesmerized by the beautiful bird sitting on Taekwoon’s shoulder.

“He’s so pretty… Wait! I think I know what this is!” He took his phone out and started typing. Taekwoon and Jaehwan kept looking at each other nervously. “Got it. It’s a Bohemian waxwing. I didn’t know they let pets in the dorms?” 

“Yeah… we sorta found it a while ago and sneaked it in,” Jaehwan lied.

“Found it? This bird is not from around here, it must be imported. Which means maybe it belonged to someone! Was there a tag on its leg?” He stretched his hand to touch the bird to probably check but Taekwoon slapped his hand away.

“No, there wasn’t a tag,” Taekwoon said angrily. The bird, Hakyeon, suddenly started flapping his wings as if he was trying to fly, but he couldn’t. He fell onto Taekwoon’s lap.

“Is he okay? I think he can’t fly?” Wonshik asked, looking between the two.

“I didn’t know you’re into birds Wonshik,” Jaehwan said, raising a brow at him.

“My dad was really into them and had a ton of books about them. I used to read some of them when I was a-”

And Hakyeon appeared, sitting on Taekwoon’s lap before Wonshik got to finish his line.

Hakyeon shrieked and in an attempt to run away, he slipped and fell on his face at the foot of the sofa.

..

In the haze of telling Taekwoon what he and Hongbin had newly discovered, Hakyeon had turned into a bird. A Bohemian something as Wonshik later told them. It was just the two of them and Hakyeon was basking in all the attention Taekwoon was giving him while he was a bird. He tried to fly but it was not as easy as birds made it look like.

Taekwoon kept praising him for doing well even though he was just fluttering his wings. They don’t come with manuals. After some failed attempts he settled on the younger’s shoulder, enjoying the peace and quiet in the apartment while Taekwoon spoke to him softly. 

“Can you chirp?” Taekwoon had asked. 

Hakyeon didn’t know how he did it, but he did. He chirped high. It almost sounded like a cricket’s chirp. Taekwoon gasped at hearing it and pat the small bird’s head with the tip of his finger. Hakyeon did it again, trying to get the hang of it.

They were in their own world when the door opened loudly and giggling sounds came from it.

Hakyeon panicked. He knew that he should try to relax since he usually shifts when he panics. But he couldn’t help it; Wonshik seemed to know about birds and suspected the situation. And he was close. Way too close. He even tried to touch him but Taekwoon swatted his hand away.

And then he shifted right in front of the guy.

Hakyeon didn’t want to wait and see Wonshik’s reaction; he just wanted to escape and go somewhere no one can find him. He jumped from Taekwoon’s lap but fell instantly due to being clumsy.

He didn’t know what happened but he was running. Very fast. On four legs?

He had changed again. He ran to his room and his under his bed. He had shifted into a golden hamster. He was sort of glad. Being small was all he needed at that moment.

..

“Uh… what’s going on? Do you guys have drugs in your air?” Wonshik asked, looking at them nervously. Jaehwan was looking everywhere but Wonshik and Taekwoon’s head was hanging low.

“We might as well tell him,” Jaehwan sighed.

“Yeah… You tell him, I’m gonna find Yeon.” Taekwoon got up and slowly walked towards Hakyeon’s room. The door was ajar and Taekwoon saw him change into a hamster but he knocked anyway.

“Yeon? I just wanna make sure you’re okay,” he called quietly and stepped inside the room, closing the door behind himself. He circled around the room, trying to find the small creature.

“Yeon come out please, I’m worried about you.” Taekwoon sat in the middle of the room, waiting. After a few minutes Hakyeon slowly came out from under the bed. Taekwoon laid his hand in front of him and Hakyeon climbed inside without arguing (not that he could argue in that state). Taekwoon held him in both hands in front of his face and smiled warmly.

“Hi.”

Hakyeon tried to hide his face behind his tiny hands. Paws? 

“Don’t worry too much. Wonshik is a good guy and he was like one step away from dating Jaehwan. He would’ve found out eventually.”

Hakywon wanted to roll his eyes because Taekwoon was right. Even if Wonshik hadn’t seen them today, Jaehwan would probably blurt it out sooner or later. The boy can’t keep a secret to save a life.

“Hey, do you wanna try and shift back?” Taekwoon proposed, putting the small hamster down on the floor. “It’s worth a try, don’t you think?” As if he already knew Hakyeon didn’t think he could do it. “Think about your human self. Picture it.” Hakyeon made a mental note to ask Taekwoon about when he became a shapeshifter expert later. “I’ll close my eyes,” Taekwoon said and did just that. 

Hakyeon mentally sighed. He closed his eyes and tried to picture himself sitting there in his room with Taekwoon. He pictured his hands reaching to take Taekwoon’s. He felt himself change. His eyes were still closed. He didn’t dare open them; something didn’t feel quite right. He moved his fingers. His toes. He licked his lips. Everything seemed to be in place.

“Hakyeon?” Taekwoon called him, concern flowing in his voice.

Hakyeon opened one eye, looking around and then down at himself, opening the other. Everything seemed normal, he was in the clothes he was before he shifted into a bird. He beamed, throwing himself at the younger and wrapping his arms tightly around his shoulders.

“Yeon… you’re-” Taekwoon stuttered.

“I did it! I controlled it,” he squeaked.

“Not completely,” Taekwoon said pointing at his head. Hakyeon felt normal. He reached to run his fingers in his hair but his fingers hit something else. There were… ears? Hakyeon got up with lightning speed and opened his closet for the mirror inside the door.

Somehow he had forgotten to picture his whole head in full details. There were hamster ears up on his head, but bigger.

“What are these? What do I do? We can’t tell Jaehwan about this,” Hakyeon rambled, turning back and clinging to Taekwoon’s shirt.

“We won’t, calm down. Just picture them gone.” 

“What if it gets worse?” 

“It won’t. You’re already done for the most part. You can do it,” Taekwoon assured, holding Hakyeon’s hands in his and squeezing tightly.

Hakyeon closed his eyes and focused on his head. He pictured his hair healthy and shiny, the way he styled it that morning. 

“Are they gone?” He opened his eyes to find Taekwoon had closed his too. 

“Let me see,” he said with a teasing tone, running his fingers through the soft locks. “You are officially back to being 100% human. Unless you have long tails,” Taekwoon teased, reaching behind him and running his hand on Hakyeon’s lower back, dragging it down on the curve of his ass.

“Stop it! Hamsters don’t have a long tail!” Hakyeon shrieked, swatting the younger’s hand away.

Two knocks came from the door. “Everything alright in there?” Jaehwan called from the other side.

“We’re good Hwanie, you can come in,” Hakyeon called, still breathless from laughing.

The door opened and Jaehwan peeked his big head in. “Hey lovebirds, everything alright in there?” Taekwoon blushed and was speechless.

“How is Wonshik? Was he traumatized like Sanghyuk?” Hakyeon asked, ignoring Jaehwan’s question.

“He’s good. He’s curious actually. We wanted to go get something to eat, you guys wanna join?”

“Yes,” Taekwoon said.

“No, it’s fine,” Hakyeon said at the same time. Taekwoon accepted immediately like a gluttonous child.

“I think we’ve already cockblocked you once already,” Hakyeon said apologetically.

“It’s okay, I feel like we’re now closer as friends. Come on, Wonshik will blow out my brain with questions…” 

“Please, can everyone stop with inappropriate questions?” Hakyeon begged.

“Nope,” Jaehwan giggled and ran back to the living area.

..

They were walking to the nearest Chinese takeout in silence. It was a heavy and awkward.

“So… are we going to acknowledge the giant elephant in the sidewalk?” Jaehwan said casually as he walked side by side to Wonshik with his hands in his pockets.

“No, that’s just your dick,” Taekwoon replied. Not the smartest thing to say to Jaehwan. Wonshik was following behind, holding his stomach and laughing.

“Do you realize that you just basically complimented him?” Hakyeon shook his head in disbelief.

“I do now…” Taekwoon cringed.

“Oh, stop it, you’re flattering me. We all know who has the biggest dick here Hakyeon hyung,” Jaehwan smirked. It almost sounded like a threat somehow.

“Who is it?” Wonshik asked innocently. He could be a bit dense sometimes.

“It’s hyung of course,” Jaehwan replied, pointing at Hakyeon with his eyes.

“Oh my God, stop. I rather we talk about my weird magical power, just please stop talking about… that!” Hakyeon cried out, clutching Taekwoon’s arm without noticing.

“Modesty and humbleness are his other qualities as you see,” Jaehwan said to Wonshik.

Taekwoon slowly snaked his arm around Hakyeon’s middle and pulled him closer. “Ignore him.”

After 10 tortuous minutes they arrived at the small takeout place. The place was cramped with only 3 sets of tables but it was clean and the food was good and fairly cheap. In other words, perfect for broke students.

The tables were usually empty this time of the year. Students rather ordered in than eat out but not everyone apparently. The table closest to the window was occupied by none other than the gamer couple.

“Hyungs! Hello,” the youngest (and largest) waved at them with a huge smile on his face. Why was he so happy?

“Hyukie, Kong-ah, hi! What are you guys doing in here?” Jaehwan asked, looking between the two of them knowingly. Hakyeon was starting to sweat. He was the one who blurted that the two rivals were dating (banging) to Jaehwan.

Where Hongbin looked a bit nervous Hyuk was completely at ease. “We’re on a date, obviously.” Hongbin’s mouth fell open and his eyes grew as round as a penny.

“We...er...” Hongbin stumbled on his words.

“It’s fine Bin, people would’ve found out sooner or later,” the younger soothed, putting his large hand on top of Hongnin’s small ones.

“He already knew,” Taekwoon said coldly as he pulled a chair out from the table beside the couple’s and sat on it, pulling Hakyeon along with him.

“I’m sorry guys, I didn’t mean to but slipped,” Hakyeon apologized, looking genuinely guilty.

“I thought you guys had a threesome or something when they didn’t come back that night,” Jaehwan said casually as if it wasn’t the most inappropriate thing to say and sat on the chair Wonshik had pulled out for him. Hakyeon already pitied the guy, he was too whipped for Jaehwan and he was the devil personified. Maybe even worse sometimes.

“Guys, maybe we should get takeout and eat somewhere else,” he suggested to his friends, not wanting to bother the young couple more than they already had.

“We were actually leavi-” Hongbin tried to say. He was clearly embarrassed to be outed to so many people at once.

“No, stay. You guys aren’t strangers and it’s not like it’s our first date or anything,” Hyuk chuckled and waved his hands. Hongbin turned a bright shade of red.

  
  


The rest of the dinner went by, fairly uneventful. Hongbin’s ice eventually melted and an easy conversation flew between them. It was kind of nice. Hongbin and Sanghyuk excused themselves sooner, saying they had a match to prepare for. Something told Hakyeon that wasn’t all they were running away to do. They all piled some cash together, which Wonshik took up to pay. Hakyeon nudged Jaehwan.

“You guys go back to the apartment, me and Taek will hang out in the park down the block,” he whispered in the younger’s ear with a soft giggle.

“What?” Jaehwan asked, confused.

“Go get laid. I’m giving you the place. Text me when it’s safe to come home.” He winked.

“Are you serious?!” Jaehwan shrieked and stood up suddenly, making the chair squeak against the floor loudly. He then bent and smacked a kiss on the crown of Hakyeon’s head and ran towards Wonshik and whispered something in his ear seductively. Wonshik turned red but Jaehwan was already pulling him out of the shop. Wonshik awkwardly bowed at the two elders before walking out with Jaehwan.

“What did you say to him? Why did they leave without us?” Taekwon asked while he was following the two with his eyes through the window. Hakyeon stood up from his chair, stretching his arms above his head.

“I told him they could have the house for a while.”

“What? Why?” Taekwoon gasped and stood up. “He was a dick the whole night! Why would you do that?”

“It’s Jaehwan, he’s always a dick more or less. I thought if we do him this favor he might be less of a dick for a while at least.” He shrugged. 

“You’re a fool. Now he’s gonna expect us to leave every time he wants to bang.”

“Don’t be a drama queen Taek, I was just feeling generous. And I will deal with him if he got out of hand.” Maybe he also wanted to spend some time with Taekwoon. Alone. Without the younger interrupting them with his loud presence.

They were walking side by side towards the park nearby. It would probably be empty at this hour. Hopefully, they won’t run into a drug dealer or anything.

They were walking in comfortable silence, unlike earlier. The silence was barely ever awkward with Taekwoon. He was a man of very few words and Hakyeon was usually more than happy to be the only one talking. It was a total surprise how talkative Taekwoon would get whenever Hakyeon shifted but he was still a very soft-spoken person. Taekwoon balanced him, Hakyeon thought.

“I had fun tonight,” Hakyeon said out of nowhere.

“You did? I thought it was a bit… crowded.”

“Of course you did.” Hakyeon laughed. “That’s why it was fun, though. For just a short while I didn’t think about… you know.”  _ My curse _ , he thought. Taekwoon nodded in understanding.

They reached the park. It was empty as expected. Only a lamppost or two and the moon were lighting the small area. The ground was covered in yellow and orange leaves that crunched under their shoes. Their hands touched briefly as they walked. Taekwoon’s hands were ice cold.

“Jesus, Woonie, your hands are freezing!” Hakyeon shrieked. His own hands wouldn’t get cold unless it was really chilly and snowing. 

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s okay, my hands get cold easily.” He rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm them up. Hakyeon wrapped his own hands around them and brought them up to his face, blowing warm breath between them.

“Maybe you should carry gloves if you get cold so easily,” Hakyeon teased.

“Why would I when you’re here?” Taekwoon said and immediately dropped his head low, his ears blushing but not because of the cold.

“I still can’t shift whenever I want, Taek.” For a moment Hakyeon wondered how would it feel like to have Taekwoon’s whole hand in him as a glove. 

“You fool,” Taekwoon mumbled and leaned in, taking a step closer until their shoes were touching. He slipped his hands out of Hakyeon’s grip and held the older’s face in both hands and smashed their lips - an actual smash. It was so hard both of them jumped away in pain.

“Ow! What the fuck, Taek?!” Hakyeon said harshly while rubbing his lips with his fingers, before realizing what happened.

_ He kissed me? _

They were still standing close. Hakyeon looked up to find Taekwoon looking down at his feet. Hakyeon’s belly filled with butterflies. He smiled and took a deep breath.

“Hey.” He brought his hand to Taekwoon’s face, running the back of his fingers softly on the round, pink cheek. “Wanna try that again? A bit more gently maybe?” Taekwoon looked up with wide eyes. Hakyeon just smiled, letting him know that it was okay. He even closed his eyes for good measure, almost going on the tip of his toes in anticipation. He could feel the other getting closer but he was hesitating. Hakyeon cracked one eye open and saw Taekwoon just a few inches away and decided to close the distant himself.

Ice met fire. 

Taekwoon’s lips were even colder than his hands. But they were soft. Oh, so soft and small and pillowy and they tasted like Diet Coke. Sweet.

Hakyeon wrapped his arms around him and brought him closer, smiling against his sweet and icy lips. Taekwoon’s ice seemed to slowly melt; his shoulders relaxed and his arms wrapped loosely around Hakyeon’s middle. The wind blew sharply and made them both shiver, forcing them to part but it did nothing to cool the heat on their cheeks.

..

_ 3 months later _

“Taek, I swear to god if you don’t get your ass out of bed in the next 10 seconds I won’t kiss you for a week.”

“ _ Why _ ?” Taekwoon moaned from under the covers.

“Because you can’t miss another class or you’ll fail and lose credit!” Hakyeon shouted. Taekwoon was even sleepier than usual during spring. Waking him up every day was a fight.

He slowly pulled the covers off so just his face was out. He looked so round and puffy. Hakyeon couldn’t even stay mad at him.

He pouted his lips and made his best puppy eyes. Jaehwan has been helping him perfect it apparently because Hakyeon was having a really hard time ignoring him. The fucker puckered his lips even more. Hakyeon groaned and walked over the bed.

“Will you get up if I give you a kiss?” he asked defeatedly. Taekwoon considered it for a second and then nodded. Hakyeon sighed. This was a battle he was never going to win.

He pecked Taekwoon’s pout quickly and then just as Taekwoon’s grip on the blanket loosened he pulled it off him.

“No! Give it back,” Taekwoon cried out.

“Get up! You promised.” Hakyeon stood up with the blanket in his arms.

“But that was barely a kiss,” he argued.

“You will get a proper kiss when you brushed your teeth, mister.”

“You had no problem making out yesterday.” He frowned, sitting up and crossing his arms.

“That’s different. I hadn’t washed up either. Now get up and stop wasting time, I made coffee.”

Taekwoon groaned and got up eventually. The way he dragged himself to the bathroom while cursing himself for taking morning classes was possibly the most hilarious thing.

It had been a few months since they had started their relationship. Taking things slow barely lasted 3 weeks even though they had both agreed on it. It was okay though. They understood each other the way no one else could.

With the other 5 people knowing about his condition, life got surprisingly easier. They didn’t need to tiptoe around or whisper. Everyone had his back and would help however they could. Hongbin had finished translating the rest of the book two months ago but it didn’t give them all that much help. 

Thankfully, things had gotten easier and faster than Hakyeon, or any of them, was expecting. He stopped having accidental shifts a few weeks after their first kiss. But with Taekwoon and Jaehwan’s insisting he started practicing shifting willingly, not trying any of Jaehwan wild ideas of course. The most interesting part above all though, was that he could shift into almost anything.

He was an Ab ovo.

“Morning bovo,” Jaehwan called, walking out of the kitchen with a grin.

“Jaehwan please stop calling me that. It’s not even-”

“Not a chance bovo. Maybe if you consider shifting into a girl...” He winked, slapping Hakyeon’s ass as he passed in front of him on his way to get Taekwoon coffee.

“Hey! Don’t touch the artwork,” Hakyeon said, slapping the younger’s hands off him.

“Huh! You wish. You just have the biggest dick here. The real work of art is  _ my _ boyfriend’s ass. You can only dream of having an ass that roun-”

“Everyone shut up about bottoms, it’s too fucking early,” Taekwoon whined, walking out of the bathroom, looking just a bit more awake.

“We weren’t talking about you though!” Jaehwan replied and ran for his life. He was lucky Taekwoon was half asleep and couldn’t catch him before he ran out of the room.

..

Hakyeon checked his watch for the 15th time in the last 15 minutes. Taekwoon was late.

They were supposed to go on a date; a real date after ages of being too busy and too tired because of midterms. Law was really kicking Taekwoon’s poor (and flat) ass. But now that both were done with midterms and could finally breathe, the first thing to do was going on a sweet, romantic date. Hakyeon would usually say that it’s fine and he doesn’t care about that kind of thing but. Who was he kidding, he was a sucker for romantic dinners, flowers and chocolate, watching cheesy movies in the theatre and making out.

He heard steps approaching. Taekwoon looked funny running with his too-long legs. What was he hiding behind him?

  
  


“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for ages!” Hakyeon asked as soon as Taekwoon arrived out of breath.

“I’m… so sorry,” he panted, bending down a bit trying to catch his breath. After a few moments he stood up straight and cleared his throat. He pulled the hand hidden behind him forward to reveal that he was holding a huge bouquet of pink and white azaleas, Hakyeon’s favorite flower.

“Taek, oh my goodness! You didn’t have to…” Hakyeon was this close to crying. The flowers were so beautiful and they smelled so nice. There was a symphony going on in his belly with all the butterflies in there singing and dancing.

“Was it worth the wait?” Taekwoon asked shyly.

Hakyeon looked up from where his face was buried in the flowers, drowning in their scent. “Yes.” He smiled and pulled the younger with his free hand by the neck and kissed him breathless.

From the corner of his eye, Hakyeon saw colorful balloons. They pulled apart and Hakyeon looked over to the other side of the street. There was an old man selling balloons near the entrance of the small park.

Taekwoon noticed him looking at the balloons and laughed in endearment. “Wait here, I’ll get one for you.”

“What? No, we’re going to dinner! We can’t take that inside the restaurant!” Hakyeon protested but Taekwoon was already halfway across the street. He stopped and looked back at Hakyeon. 

“We can burst it before going in,” he called and walked backwards towards the sidewalk.

The sun had just set moments ago. The street was almost too dark.

Hakyeon saw a motorbike riding lightspeed towards Taekwoon, who was wearing dark grey.

“Taek!” Hakyeon shouted. Taekwoon smiled, not knowing what was coming. Hakyeon bolted towards him, shifting into a huge eagle. He’d eventually learned how to fly as a bird.

He flew like a bullet that had just been shot, managing to grab Taekwoon with strong talons and pulling aside just as the bike caught them, seeing the tall man and the huge bird a second too late.

..

_ Too bright _ , Hakyeon thought, squeezing his eyes shut tighter.

“Rise,” a familiar voice called.

_ Where am I? What happened?  _ Hakyeon ignored the voice, trying to remember where he last was.

Taekwoon.

The bike.

_ Am I dead? _

“ _ Rise, _ ” the voice called again, louder this time and making Hakyeon jump and open his eyes. 

_ I’ve been here before… _

Hakyeon found himself standing on a platform. A rock? Behind him were people standing. So many people Hakyeon couldn’t see the end of it. In front of him stood 9 people, tall and proud. They looked odd though. Each one seemed like they’d come from a different time in history. They varied in age. The oldest seemed like he could be at least 100 years old, with pearl white hair and a wrinkly dark face, and the youngest couldn’t be more than 16. Odd.

“Do you know where you are, Cha Hakyeon?” one of the nine people in front of him asked. A woman in her 40s. That voice….

His dream months ago. It was one of the voices.

Hakyeon looked around again. They seemed to be in a white room. But there were no walls or a ceiling. The room was infinite white space.

White void.

9 people.

_ The court. _

“Is this the court? From the ancient book?” he asked, finding his voice strange to his own ears. Maybe it was because of the void.

“It is. Do you know why you’re here?” the woman asked again. Was she the speaker of the group?

“Not really… Am I dead?” Hakyeon suddenly felt cold to his bones. Why was he in the court? He did nothing wrong!

“You are here to be executed for harming another human being using your gift,” the woman said louder than before, as if she wanted everyone present in the room - void - to hear it.

“What?!” Hakyeon snapped. “When did I do that?”

“You caused the human riding on two wheels severe damage to save your… lover,” the woman answered.

“The guy was riding past the speed limit with no lights! And I  _ saved  _ an innocent person who happened to be my lover,” Hakyeon defended, arms crossing over his chest. “Wait, did I save him? Is Taekwoon okay?”

“The decision has already been made, Cha Hakyeon. You will be-”

“What the fuck is this?” Hakyeon shouted, throwing his hands up in disbelief.

“Silence! You shall not disrespect the court this way!” the woman shouted back, her voice echoing through the void and giving Hakyeon goosebumps. But he will be damned if he stood there and took that unjustice.

“With all due respect, ma’am, this is not a court.” Hakyeon raised a brow and relaxed his body, trying to seem as calm and collected as possible. He had helped Taekwoon with his studies a lot and now was the time to see how much he had learned.

“How dare you!” 

“You just brought me here and told me my sentence. That’s not how courts work. This is an execution room, not a court.”

“You shall be punished for-” the woman kept shouting but the elder stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked so surprised it seemed like her eyes would pop out of her skull. 

The elder nodded to the woman and then turned to Hakyeon. “We will listen.” His voice was deep and hoarse but clear enough.

Hakyeon took a deep breath. 

_ This is your chance, Cha Hakyeon. Your life depends on it.  _

“I’m innocent. I saved a man’s life. The biker was breaking multiple laws.” Hakyeon stated his facts, taking a short breath between each.

“Even if the biker man was breaking laws as you say, you still saved that man for selfish reasons,” the middle aged woman said, looking smug.

“What is that supposed to mean? I would’ve done that if it was anyone else too.” The ‘ _ court _ ’ was not only unjust but also homophobic apparently.

“You cannot prove that you would.”

“You cannot prove that I wouldn’t.” Hakyeon copied the woman’s tone. Maybe it wasn’t the best move. She was just about to explode when the elder touched her shoulder again.

“Abo!” She was clearly not happy with not having her way. Who even made her the boss? The elder ignored her and looked at Hakyeon with a faint but genuine smile.

“Young Cha Hakyeon. You’re an innocent man with a kind heart.” The woman called him ‘Abo’... could that be short for Ab ovo? Was he the other only Ab ovo?

“I’m doing my best, sir.” Hakyeon looked down humbly.

“You shall go back to your life safely. Take good care of your gift,” the man said with a knowing smile. Hakyeon didn’t really know what use his ‘gift’ even had. But life was a strange thing. He was definitely glad to have it so he could save Taekwoon. 

“Yes sir.” He bowed fully and when he stood straight the 9 judges were gone. “What...”

“Kyeon-ah!” Another familiar voice called from behind him. He would never forget that voice.

“Maa!” He turned around to see his grandma standing in front of him, looking exactly the way Hakyeon remembered. But smaller. She seemed so much bigger when he was a kid but now he was a tall grown man. He had to bend in half to hug her but it was the best feeling. She smelled the same.

“My Kyeonie, look how big you are! What did your mom feed you?” she cooed, holding Hakyeon’s face in both hands. Her hands were so soft, Hakyeon couldn’t help but lean into them. He never thought he could see his grandma again, at least before dying.

“Maa, I missed you so much, I wish you were there to help me. Guide me.” Hakyeon looked down, eyes tearing up.

“Oh, my sweet child. I am always there with you. Right there.” She placed her hand in the middle of Hakyeon’s chest where his heart was. He burst into tears, burying his head in the small old women’s neck.

“You must go back, my darling. Your lover is waiting for you.” She winked. 

“I love you Maa.” He hugged her tightly for the last time.

“I love you too, my Kyeonie.” She planted a soft kiss on the crown of his head and with that the world fell dark.

..

_ Yeon? _

_ Hakyeon! _

Taekwoon was calling him. Where was he? 

“Hakyeon?!” Hakyeon’s eyes snapped open. It was the cold hand on his cheek that did the work.

“Jesus! Your hands!” Hakyeon shrieked, pulling away from the icy touch.

“Yeon, oh my God you scared the shit out of me!” Taekwoon sighed in relief. They were still on the street. He was laying at the side of the street; there were a few people gathering around and a siren sound was getting closer. Taekwoon helped him sit up. 

The biker was laying on the ground. He was wearing a helmet at least but his leg looked painfully broken.

“How long was I out?” 

“Just a few minutes,” Taekwoon replied, looking at his watch. “We’re lucky there’s no CCTV around here, Yeon,” he whispered.

Hakyeon shook his head. “You will not believe what happened to me...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've made it here congratulations and thank you for sticking by hehe  
> As I was reading this rn before posting I felt like an epilogue is kinda needed... so I might add something later. lemme know if you want smut or not ;)  
> Leave me comments and tell me where I need to improve~ I would love some constructive criticism!  
> Leave kudos if you enjoyed and as always comments make me really happy and motivated ^^  
> [Tumblr](https://babieken.tumblr.com)  
> 

**Author's Note:**

> Nervous laughs*  
> Leave kudos if you enjoyed and talk to me in comments uwu this is already finished and beta'd I just wanna see what you guys think for a bit before I post the rest.  
> And comments make me really happy so ^_^  
> find me on [Tumblr](https://babieken.tumblr.com)  
> 


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